Heading into fall camp all the conversation around the quarterback position has been centered around Jalon Daniels and Jason Bean. They are the two most productive quarterbacks on the roster and took most of the snaps last season.
This summer Ethan Vasko was another scholarship quarterback added to the roster. He comes to Kansas with one of the most impressive high school resumes.
He led Oscar Smith High to three state titles games where they won two of them. He won the Virginia Offensive Player of the Year twice. As Vasko was arriving on campus this summer he said he was ready for the next chapter in his life.
“I'm excited,” he said. “It's definitely going to be a change. But it's everything I've always worked for since I was little. It's like a dream come true, so I'm super excited to get started and just show everyone what I have and just going out there and work.”
Vasko led his team to a 35-3 record over three years and threw for over 9200 yards in his career. He spent time in the spring watching the team before he arrived. He stayed in contact with Jim Zebrowski up until the day he reported.
“I came up in during spring ball, then I got to see some good stuff from all the guys and all the practices,” he said. “It was awesome keeping in touch with Coach Z, talking a couple times a week, and then just going over whatever they've been doing. I was keeping up and learning a lot of new stuff.”
The coaches have not seen what the newcomers who reported in June can do in a practice setting. But with rule changes they can watch them workout.
“With Ethan I’m very pleased with him from what I've seen,” Lance Leipold said. “I say between physical development for a high school quarterback, size, maturity, personality, things that you're worried about early on. Is that where he's going to be? Moving halfway across the country, and all that, I'm very pleased with where he's at in those stages. I’m anxious to see him in uniform.”
Vasko picked up a lot of traffic on social media in the offseason when he knocked a bottle off his sister’s head from 30 yards. While the throw was accurate it did hit part of her head. Vasko said he later did the same stunt with his younger sister.
“A few weeks after we did that, I did it with my other sister and I actually hit the bottle on the first try and then I posted that one,” he said. “Of course, no one sees that one because all everyone's worried about is me hitting my sister in the head. Everyone likes that one more.”
He talked with his new teammates over the summer and kept close tabs on the program before he arrived last month. He believes the program is going in the right direction and he wanted to be a part of it.
“I think it's going up,” he said. “Being at the practices and seeing the energy of the guys, I think it's a hungry team who wants to get better, is ready to win, and they're hungry to win, which is awesome. I came from a winning high school, and I think bringing guys like me and other people in who know what it feels like to win and know the standards to win, I think that's going to help. I think all the guys here want to win, and I think it's going to be a good next couple of years.”
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